Is it ok to use? (modifying templates)
I have a concern thats bothered me for the past years. I have several clients having to approach me to design and develop their sites carrying with them templates they have chosen already from template sites.
The templates are great since its all validated and coded well in css, some took them from oswd and they point those to me and ask me to skin it for them. Is it appropriate however to put your mark as a designer on those templates when its coded by somebody else? Dont get me wrong but I apply customizations of my own and the outcome would fairly be different than the original template, its the markup thats somewhat similar. What are your thoughts on this?
Megan posted this at 12:44 — 23rd August 2006.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
What's oswd??
It would definitely not be okay to mark it as your own work when it's not. You could say that the design is based on the template and modified by you.
Megan
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timjpriebe posted this at 14:53 — 23rd August 2006.
He has: 2,667 posts
Joined: Dec 2004
OSWD = Open Source Web Design.
Megan posted this at 18:01 — 23rd August 2006.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
Oh, I guessed that might be it. If it's open source the lisence probably stipulates that any modifications must also be open source. The usage agreement there says that each submitted design has its own lisence agreement so check that if you can find it. It looks like they come with the download.
On the bottom of that site they have "This design by fs is Valid XHTML and CSS." You could have "This design by fs was modified by demonhale".
Just out of interest, I've downloaded a few to check any usage information. Only one out of 4 that I downloaded had anything and it just said "this template has been created for personal use only" which means it's not really open source...
(I think that site should have some more information about what open source actually means!)
Megan
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demonhale posted this at 00:54 — 24th August 2006.
He has: 3,278 posts
Joined: May 2005
Yeah, thats what got me confused. See there are those templates they bring to me that freely indicates reuse and whatever, and sometimes its a fairly easy design like a three-column layout I can do myself but the client insist on using the template to save time... they want it fast etc, and im not even using the graphics of the original template...
What I do now is indicate myself as the designer since I made a completely new look, and I add a credit area on the sidebar to the original template coder, but feel free to discuss more about this since its been a trend with new clients lately...
helen313a posted this at 00:22 — 5th September 2006.
She has: 11 posts
Joined: Mar 2006
I think it is ok if you make big changes!
Helen,
webmaster of www.docredits.com
autoecart posted this at 05:35 — 11th September 2006.
They have: 24 posts
Joined: Sep 2006
If it will change the look of the template to the point where it would not look anything like the original than its probably fine.
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